


bad day

by michpat6



Series: aftermath [4]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, fi rights, link tries to help, she sort of has a panic attack, the champions are only mentioned, the master sword is sentient and I will die on this hill, zelda describes their deaths and it's kinda violent but not too in depth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27843367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michpat6/pseuds/michpat6
Summary: It’s been two weeks since the death of the Calamity, and Zelda’s condition has yet to truly improve. She has Good Days, where she can move and eat and drink, but she also has Bad Days, where all she does is sleep and ache and snap at him out of self-deprecating rage and hunger that her stomach won’t allow her to satisfy.Of the fourteen days she’s been free, only two of them have been Good.
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: aftermath [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033743
Comments: 8
Kudos: 149





	bad day

It’s been two weeks since the death of the Calamity, and Zelda’s condition has yet to truly improve. She has Good Days, where she can move and eat and drink, but she also has Bad Days, where all she does is sleep and ache and snap at him out of self-deprecating rage and hunger that her stomach won’t allow her to satisfy.

Of the fourteen days she’s been free, only two of them have been Good.

On day fifteen, they’ve finally moved on from Kakariko and are traveling to Hateno. Link wants to show her his house, wants it to be a place for her to rest and heal without the responsibilities Impa is sure to thrust on her looming over her head like the blade of a guillotine, but on the morning of day fifteen it’s clear she’s going to have a Bad Day.

A _really_ Bad Day.

Link is up early, early enough that even the stable owner is sitting asleep at his station. They’ve spent the night at the Dueling Peaks stable, looking to get to the house by nightfall if it’s a Good Day and tomorrow morning if it’s a Bad, and he’s never slept well in their cheap beds. He could easily afford two of their soft ones, but it would be a waste for only one night.

(That didn’t stop him from buying Zelda the night in a soft bed when she wasn’t paying attention, and feeling only a little guilty when she commented on her surprise that a stable would offer such nice mattresses for so cheap a price).

He’s sitting on the edge of his bed, pulling on his boots, absentmindedly watching Zelda’s shoulder rise and fall (she’s on her side, facing away from him, buried beneath the blanket, and Link tries not to be disappointed) as he tucks the ankles of his trousers inside. He grabs his Champion’s tunic and winces at the smell. The last time it was cleaned was a few days ago, and he was supposed to have it washed again yesterday, before they left Kakariko, but Zelda was insistent they leave, not aware of the state of his shirt, and he took an oath to obey her.

He shouldn’t wear the tunic.

But he is a Champion. _The_ Champion. The Hero. He’s supposed to wear his uniform.

He catches another whiff, almost gags, and decides his nose takes precedence over the rules. He tosses it back in his bag, digs around for a clean shirt, and thank _Hylia_ his climbing gear is clean. He doesn’t want Zelda to see him in whatever shirt belonged to a ‘Tingle’. So, on the climbing top goes.

He straps his bow, the Master Sword, and his shield to his back, fastens his quiver and the Sheikah Slate to his belt, and the cool night/early morning air leaves goosebumps on his bare arms.

Then Zelda shifts in her sleep, and the back of his sword hand tingles. The Master Sword hums against his back. 

Link frowns, confused as to what it’s trying to tell him.

Zelda rolls onto her other side, frowning. Her eyebrows furrow as she curls in on herself.

As if frustrated, the Master Sword buzzes in its scabbard. The tingling turns to an uncomfortable warmth flooding his hand.

Zelda whimpers and Link believes, if its voice could form words, that the Master Sword would be cursing him out. It’s practically vibrating, heat searing into his back, andthe blood in his right hand must be boiling because it’s so _hot_ -

That’s when Zelda’s eyes shoot open, wide and afraid, as she startles awake. The Master Sword goes still, his hand goes cold, and he’s an idiot for not realizing it sooner.

_Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight…_

Zelda and Link are two pieces of the Triforce, their spirits intertwined since _long_ before even the First Calamity ten thousand years ago. The Master Sword was created by Hylia, and is bound to her. Zelda is Hylia reincarnated, Wisdom, and Link is bound to her. Link is the Hero, Courage, bound to Zelda, and therefore bound to the Master Sword.

They are all connected by the same string. Together, the three of them make their own Triforce against Ganon’s piece of Power.

“ _Link._ ” her voice is ragged, and there are tears in her eyes as she reaches for him.

He lets her drag him down and engulf him in a hug. He could never deny her comfort, but he doesn’t hug her back. That’s something he could only do Before. If he indulged, if he let himself hold her in his arms, he would be taking advantage of her, of her vulnerability.

He is a knight, and she is his princess. Their relationship is…

The Master Sword hums in warning.

He’s not going to finish that thought.

“I’m here,” he murmurs as she cries, her tears wetting his shoulder. “You’re free.”

“It was so dark,” she manages. “I was so cold, and he kept whispering in my ear that you weren’t coming-”

She’s never told him what words the pig tormented her with for a century.

The stable owner meanders over, yawning. “Is everything all right-“

Link turns on him with a vicious glare and wolfishly snarls, “ _Fine_.”

His manners be damned, he is her knight and she needs protecting.He knows that he’s not himself when it comes to keeping her safe like this, guarding the dignity she so badly wants to keep, hiding from her the whispers and the gossip that’s probably spreading across Hyrule about ‘That helpful boy’s strange new friend’, but how else is he supposed to act when she’s in danger? He can’t be bothered to say _Please_ or _Thank you_ or make puns about sand seals, not when the person he-the princess- _Zelda_ is sobbing into his skin, reliving a hundred years of trauma.

The man blinks, and raises his hands in surrender as he backs off and returns to his station.

Zelda is still gasping. Link, desperate, pulls out of her grasp for a moment to drop his gear-minus the Sheikah Slate-to the floor and climbs into the bed beside her, sitting up against the wall.

She clings to him like she’s lost at sea and he’s the only thing keeping her afloat, sliding under his left arm and leaning all of her measly weight into his side. He takes out the slate, and when he raises it up the screen lights blue, the Sheikah Eye fading away to the map, zoomed in on Necluda and their position, a yellow arrow symbolizing them and a beige square with a horse head the stable. The shrine just outside is a bright blue diamond. 

The light illuminates Zelda’s flushed, teary face as she pants.

“I-I filled the compendium as best as I could,” he stutters, _very_ aware of his arm around her, of how close she is to him. Her legs are curled up, her knees pressing against his thigh, and he can’t help but notice that they’re in an intimate position, and that the stable owner is _definitely_ watching them with his eyebrows raised. Link ignores him this time, brings up the Hyrule Compendium to show her all of his entries so far. He remembers hearing in the Gerudo Spa that distractions from stress are the best form of relaxation. “All of…All of the monsters, the guardians, the weapons, and the shields are filled in, they were the easiest-“

She swipes to the last entries of the _Monsters_ section, brings up his blurry pictures of the different Ganons. Looks through the Blights and manages, “He showed me their deaths.”

Link waits.

“They were…” she closes her eyes, takes a few shaking breaths. “They were so brave, but…Windblight shot Revali out of the sky. Fireblight quickly learned it couldn’t burn Daruk, and cut him to pieces. Mipha was-She was skewered by Waterblight and tossed aside like she was nothing, and…and Urbosa-”

“Zelda,” he whispers. 

“She was the last one to fall,” Zelda’s eyes are still closed. Her bottom lip quivers. “She turned Thunderblight’s electricity against itself. She…She was _so close_ to beating it, I could tell, but her shield was in fragments. Her scimitar’s blade was broken, and then Thunderblight _moved_ and…” she takes another breath. “It moved and she was gone.”

“There was nothing you could have done.”

“I could have unlocked my power sooner.”

“How?”

She opens her eyes, looks up at him, and stares. Her eyes are so green. He swears they flick to his mouth before she says, “I don’t know.”

On the floor, the Master Sword buzzes.

**Author's Note:**

> zelda: *having a nightmare*  
> link: ow, my hand  
> fi, inside of the master sword: *screaming*


End file.
